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One visitor every five days
The visitor calendar
Lisa was born in Tokyo and went to school for about four years in Philly and five or six in Seattle. Her calendar runs from November 2022 to April 2026 and marks every day someone was in town. It counts 119 people in all, including some she wasn't hosting but helped with their trip, and 96 of them were her personal guests.
Averaged out, that is one visitor every five days, which puts a guest in town on twenty percent of her days since November 2022. The busiest stretches came around 2023 and 2025.
Life as a guide
Her free time went to planning what to do with each visitor and answering questions as they built itineraries for Japan. She loved everyone who came, and it still felt like she was working as a personal tour guide. Nearly everyone she knows is either going to Japan or talking about going.
Why do hosts end up as tour guides?
Tourism researchers call travel to see friends and relatives VFR, and it is one of the standard purposes of a trip alongside leisure and business. The host usually becomes the visitor's main source of local information, picking restaurants, routes, and timing. Visitors who stay with or near friends tend to lean on the host's recommendations more than on guidebooks. The World Tourism Organization, now called UN Tourism, lists visiting friends and relatives as its own category in international travel statistics.
Why is Tokyo the usual first stop?
Tokyo is served by two major international airports, Haneda and Narita, which makes it the main gateway for flights into Japan. By United Nations estimates, the Tokyo metropolitan area is home to more than thirty million people. From Tokyo Station, the Tokaido Shinkansen reaches Kyoto in about two hours and fifteen minutes. Osaka is roughly two and a half hours away on the same line.
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